In Florida, Krister Toney can't file a medical malpractice lawsuit on behalf of his late mother, Patricia, whose portrait he holds.

Republicans are pitching plans for lowering health care costs as alternatives to Obamacare. Further restricting malpractice lawsuits is one of those - and a bad idea for Florida.

Legal reforms here have gone far enough already.

Today, Florida boasts one of the lowest-cost, most competitive markets in America for doctors , hospitals and the malpractice insurance carriers that defend them in court and pay the damages.

But t has achieved that by treating some dead and crippled patients as if their lives have no value whatsoever.

Think I'm exaggerating?

The just-introduced Republican alternative to Obamacare, the American Health Care Reform Act, proclaims a "liability crisis." It blames lawsuits for driving up health costs.

So, how many medical malpractice cases would you guess close per year in Brevard, a county of more than 500,000, where health care is the No. 1 industry?

Would you believe less than 50? It's true.

For starters, Florida law restricts who can file wrongful-death lawsuits, including malpractice cases. A surviving spouse or dependent child can sue. An adult child who cared for a widowed or divorced parent may not, regardless of their losses.

Here, "tort reform" passed in 2003 allow compensation for lost income but caps "non-economic" damages at $500,000. It pays victims who are pilots, engineers or other mid-career workers. It stiffs children, retirees and the poor.

Here, our system discourages frivolous lawsuits by requiring plaintiffs to first pay third-party doctors to review their evidence and endorse their cases.

Tougher still, Florida caps attorney's contingency fees at 30 percent of the first $250,000 in damages and 10 percent of everything after that. So in the average case, a winning trial attorney stands to earn about $100,000 to pay himself, paralegals, expert witnesses and office expenses in an ordeal that will last 3.5 years.

Lose a thumb to a medical mistake? Not worth the trouble, I'm told.

No recourse

The Aug. 23 death of Patricia Ann Toney of Cocoa is as good an illustration as any of why our laws are tough enough.

Her death certificate shows she died of heart failure brought on by a massive infection from bedsores.

The 64-year-old woman weighed 300 pounds and entered a major local hospital with complications from diabetes, her medical records show. Hospital staff didn't rotate her enough while she was in a room unconscious, her son and former caretaker Krister Toney says. Two months and three hospitals later, the former daycare-center cook was dead - and not from diabetes.

To be fair, I won't name the hospital. I can't investigate to confirm any malpractice.

That would be an attorney's job. But no lawyer can take this case because no one may sue on Patricia Toney's behalf.

"Under Florida law, you need to have a surviving claimant," said lawyer Pierre Daniel of Fort Pierce, one of those Krister Toney consulted. Krister and his adult siblings don't count.

Even if the family could sue, other tort reform would limit recovery. The woman had recently been laid off from her job of 42 years. In Florida, she had little if any economic value.

Krister Toney has appealed to local politicians to change the law.

"They did the best they could at the end ? I don't hate those doctors," he told me. "I just want the world to know this law needs to change."

Thriving market

Still, the legal reforms have worked wonders for others, according to a decade of legal, financial and regulatory data on malpractice cases. The numbers show:

Fewer cases. Even as Florida's population surged during the boom, the number of malpractice cases closed statewide dropped 35 percent, from a peak of 3,811 in 2006 (mostly filed before 2004) to 2,461 last year.

Falling awards. In 45 percent of all cases, plaintiffs get nothing. Total annual non-economic damages have dropped by two-thirds.

Bigger profits. In 2003, the losses and legal-defense costs for insurers consumed about 94 cents of every dollar in premium paid by doctors and hospitals. Last year, losses and defense costs consumed just 40 cents per dollar.

Falling rates. Malpractice insurance rates have dropped steadily since 2005, averaging 4.6 percent less per year for doctors.

Better ranking. Florida now ranks below the national average for the cost of malpractice lawsuits to the health care industry. Eighty-one new insurers have entered the market.

Tens years later, Florida's legal reforms have delivered big for the medical and insurance industries the Legislature meant to help.

There's is no sign, however, they reduced costs to millions of patients who have sacrificed rights and security.